This paper was written in commemoration of the Tercentenary of the Catechism. It was approved by a Committee of Synod.
THE Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly are regarded by the late Prof. Mitchell of St. Andrews as the matured fruit of all the debates of the divines of that Assembly. It is not necessary in this paper to give a detailed account of the background of the Shorter Catechism historically. Such can be got by any interested reader in such a volume as “Catechisms of the Second Reformation,” with historical introduction and biographical notes, by A. F. Mitchell, D.D. We give a brief general narrative.
By January, 1647, it was ordered that a “draught” of two catechisms be prepared, one more large, and another more brief, as they found it “very difficult to satisfy themselves or the world . . . to dress up milk and meat both in one dish.” Mitchell believes that in the method of handling their subject, the divines of the Committee followed the outline and method of some previous manual—the method being, first, to set forth what doctrines are to be believed (i.e., credenda), then follow the ten commandments, while the means of grace and the Lord’s Prayer are left to the last. After the Larger was completed in 1646, the Shorter was put in form. The Shorter Catechism was sent up to Parliament without proofs in November, 1647, and with proofs, on 14th April, 1648. The Commissioners from Scotland took little to do with it. They were either gone home, or, as Henderson, dead before the Confession itself was completed. Baillie took a copy of it, without proofs, to Scotland. We do not take up further space at present to point out some of the differences between the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. These are told by Mitchell. When passed by Parliament, it became widely popular in England, and continued so, both among Presbyterians and other orthodox dissenters. It was translated into Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and more recently into Hebrew, Syriac, modern Greek, and most modern languages of the east and west. When Dr. Mitchell visited schools near Beyrouth, about 1860, he found American missionaries teaching it, in its orthodox Arabic translation, to Druse and Maronite children.
A matter worthy of emphasis is that the guiding principle before the Committee in its composition was that the greatest care was to be taken not to frame the answer “according to the model of knowledge the child hath, but according to that the child ought to have.” Dr. McCrie has well observed, according to Dr. Mitchell,—that the pupil must learn the rudiments of Latin and Greek long before he can use them as a key to unlock the treasures of ancient learning, and “experience has shown that few who have been carefully instructed in our Shorter Catechism have failed to discover the advantage of becoming acquainted in early life, even as a task, with that admirable form of sound words.”
This Catechism was approved by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on 28th July, 1648, and ratified by the Parliament of Scotland in February, 1649. Prof. Schaff, who lived in Mitchell’s time, put the Shorter Catechism before the Heidelberg one for clearness and careful wording, but viewed it as lacking the “genial warmth, freshness and child-like simplicity” of Luther’s and the Heidelberg catechisms. It would well repay one to procure Mitchell’s volume, were it only that one might see the references to Puritan authors who wrote on these leading doctrines, and to peruse the other catechisms published in the book.
What falls to us now, by way of commemoration of this excellent document, is to emphasise a few of its leading doctrines which are so necessary in our generation. One of these is the truth that in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, we have the Word of the Lord. The word “inspiration” is not used in the Catechism, but what it means is implied. The word “inspiration” means that those led by the Lord to compose the books of the Bible were borne along, as the Apostle Peter says, by the Holy Spirit. The subject of inspiration is, of course, too great to be dealt with here, at any length,—but it means that the writers of the several books wrote as freely as if they were the sole authors of the books, and yet that the Lord divinely led and guided them, so that although they, in His love and unerring wisdom were employed, He is the supreme and holy Author. Inspiration does not mean mere dictation, as a teacher does to a class at school. And it is not the same as that enlightening which the Lord bestows on blind, lost sinners, when He opens their understandings to see the glory of God in Christ and so become believers. It was a gift by itself,—unique, a holy mystery, but a blessed reality,—whereby the human writers were divinely guided.
Another holy and blessed doctrine which we emphasise is that of the glory of Christ. This implies and enfolds in it all going before it, and all related to it in the spheres of creation, providence, and redemption. Christ has a two-fold glory,—that of His eternal godhead and Sonship, when He is regarded in the essential aspect. He has also His glory as Mediator, in His humiliation and exaltation. This brings before us all in the Catechism bearing on His being for eternity the Prophet, Priest and King of His spiritual kingdom,—also the Person and Work of His Holy Spirit, with “the sure mercies of David” bestowed on sinners who are effectually called. The other parts of the Catechism fall in good order into their own places,—such as, the nature and uses of the Moral Law, with the means of grace and the Lord’s Prayer. The sum and substance of this prayer is evidently, “Thy will be done,” or otherwise, “The whole earth let His glory fill, Amen, so let it be.”
It would be both profitable and pleasant to refer to many of these questions and answers in the Catechism, but this paper is not the place for any such endeavour.
Were the truth of the glory of the Saviour, on whose exalted Head is the mitre with the golden plate of the everlasting priesthood,—and who wears the crowns of creation, providence, grace and glory,—prized in our day, and His untraceable riches esteemed by men,—how God’s name would be hallowed!—how the Lord’s Day as the memorial of the resurrection would be lovingly observed! and how the Spirit of the eternal sanctuary would be manifest in the personal, family and national life of our nation!
Would that these priceless truths of the Shorter Catechism were with godly sincerity and simplicity, received and cherished in this land and to the ends of the earth! Let the people of the Lord wrestle that this be so, for thereby a change would, in the kindness of God, come over the views and ways of men. “Behold,” brother would say to brother, “the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth,—the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”